The Daniel Pearl case is a window into several serious issues that have relevance today toU.S. foreign policy and America’s war in Afghanistan: the emergence of a “PunjabiTaliban,” made up of militants from the Pakistani province of Punjab; the role of Karachi,Pakistan’s largest city, as a safe haven for militants; and the nexus between the Pakistanimilitancy and Al Qaeda. The case also offers important lessons related to problems withrule of law in Pakistan. Among the project’s more specific findings:

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The kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl was a multifaceted, at times chaoticconspiracy. The Pearl Project has identified 27 men who played a part in theevents surrounding the case. Members of at least three different militant groupstook part in the crimes, including a team of kidnappers led by British-PakistaniOmar Sheikh and a team of killers led by Al Qaeda strategist Khalid SheikhMohammed, who is known as KSM.

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KSM told FBI agents in Guantanamo that he personally slit Pearl’s throat andsevered his head to make certain he’d get the death penalty and to exploit themurder for propaganda. Some U.S. and Pakistani officials believe KSM may have been assisted by two of his nephews, Musaad Aruchi, whose whereabouts aren’t publicly known, and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, KSM’s trusted aide, who is incarceratedin Guantanamo Bay.

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After 9/11, KSM designated his young nephew, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, to be thefacilitator for “shoe bomber” Richard Reid. When he was kidnapped, Pearl waschasing a story that a cleric, Sheik Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, was the facilitator.He wasn’t. Reid was an Al Qaeda operative.

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Doubts regarding KSM’s confessions during “waterboarding” were eased whenFBI agents and CIA officials used a technique called vein-matching to comparethe hand of the killer in the murder video with a photo of Mohammed’s hand.

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Nearly half of those implicated in Pearl’s abduction-murder — at least 14 menwith some alleged involvement — are thought to remain free. The list includesguards, drivers, and fixers tied to the conspiracy.

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In their haste to close the case, Pakistani authorities knowingly used perjuredtestimony to pin the actual act of murder on Omar Sheikh and his three co-conspirators. While the four were involved in the kidnapping plan and certainlywere culpable, they were not present when Pearl was murdered. Others, who were present and actually assisted in the brutal beheading, were not charged.

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The conspirators were inept, plagued by bungling plans, a failure to cover their tracks, and an inability to operate cameras and computer equipment. Even thevideotape of Pearl’s murder was staged — replayed because the cameraman failedto capture the original scene.